As an orienteer and mountain runner (inter alia), I have enjoyed seeing many beautiful parts of the world, and have made many very special friends. The diversity of forest and cornucopia of superlative views from an abundance of different peaks have made me very aware, not only of how extraordinarily lucky I am to have seen such things, but, and possibly more significantly, the importance of such places to the peace of our souls, as well as to the continuation of our species, and to the contribution to the happiness of those yet to come. Our world is such an amazing place – whether we are thinking of forests, rivers or the views to eternity from a mountain top. We have to fight hard to keep these dwindling places of beauty alive.

The blogsite is titled ‘walks’, and I have put in lots of those. I have always intended to add in some of our European distance walks once I had written up the Tassie ones.

Bit by bit, European sections will be added. I am not sure how to separate them from Tassie ones (and I want to keep the two facets distinct), so my first solution is to put them all as predating the walking, even though there is an overlap. Here is my first posting on European experiences, and I am beginning with some of my happiest moments as an international competitor. These photos are taken from my comp file, and not my separate training file. One thing at a time. This one is already complete, so can be posted. Perhaps these photos help contextualise some of what comes later. Who I was is an integral part of who I am still. One moves on, but never entirely away from what went on before.